Speaking of elections, I'm always amazed at how many people have really weird ideas about what the candidates stand for. People who vote for the left-wing candidate because they want lower taxes, or the right-wing candidate because they are concerned about the environment.
Looking at the ads, I guess you can understand why. Aside from the lack of honesty, there's the fact that parties often work hardest to dispel preconceptions of their best-known qualities. It's the same way you might get the misconception that diet cola tastes better, because the ads work so hard convincing you it doesn't taste like a chemistry experiment.
But what's odd is how sure these people are about their mistaken beliefs. I mean, you'd think a person would naturally have some self-doubt whenever they are discussing a topic they don't know well. And you would think that doubt would increase when it's a topic that is well-known to have a lot of misleading information floating around. But still, people voluntarily tell me about how they're voting Green for their pro-business stance.
But now it's getting more complicated as many people are withdrawing from the process out of frustration. I don't want to get into a discussion of whether that withdrawal is justified (I’m talking about withdrawal in disgust, not the boycotting to make a point that I complained about earlier) but I wonder how much elections are swung by the number of people on each side who give up. I don't know if either side is more prone to dropping out of the process. I don't even think there's a consistency in how much cynicism and frustration causes a person to throw up their hands.
It's depressing because you start to believe the election could become a crap-shoot of misinformation and the foibles of personality. Which side is most likely to have voters who interpret frustration as a no-win situation? Which type of person is more likely to misunderstand politics?
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